South Indian Inscriptions

INCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY CHALUKYAS OF GUJARAT

The language is Sanskrit. Except for a verse in praise of the boar incarnation in the beginning and three benedictive and imprecatory verses at the end, the record is in prose throughout. The orthography shows the usual peculiarities of the doubling of a consonant after r, the use of the dental for the lingual sibilant in varsa-, 1.23, and that of the guttural nasal for the anusvāra before h in Jayasinha-, 1.13.

The record opens with the verse in praise of the boar incarnation of Vishņu, which generally occurs in the beginning of the grants of the Early Chālukyas.¹ This is followed by a description of the Chālukya family as in the preceding grant (No. 27). The first historical member of this family mentioned here is Kīrtivarman (I). He bore the biruda Prithivīvallabha and the Imperial titles Mahārājādhirāja and I Paramēśvara, and had his body sanctified by the avadhŗitha bath in an Aśvamēdha sacrifice. His dear son was the Mahārāja, the illustrious Satyāśraya-Pulakēśivallabha (II), who obtained the title of Paramēśvara by defeating the illustrious Harshavardhana, the lord of Uttarāpatha (North India). His son Jayasimhavarman granted the present plates. He is said to have obtained victory in several battles with four-membered armies² and to have vanquished and exterminated with his bright-tipped arrows, the entire army of Vajjada in the country between the Mahī and the Narmadā. He was a devotee of a saintly person whose name has been partially lost in line II. The ending -śiva which can still be read shows that he was an ascetic probably of the Śaiva, as distinguished from the Pāśupata, sect. He is described as the author of a (Sanskrit) play entitled Harapārvatīya. As its name signifies, the play treated of some incident in the life of Śiva and Pārvatī, probably their marriage. Jayasimha is further said to have been meditating on the feet of his father, mother and the illustrious Anivārita, who was probably his guru.

The object of the inscription is to record the grant, by Jayasimha, of the village Dhōņdhaka in the Nāsikya vishaya on the occasion of the Vishuva or vernal equinox which fell on the tenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Chaitra. The donee was the Brāhmana Trivikrama, the son of Prītiśarman, who belonged to the Bharadvāja gōtra and the Vājasanēya śākhā. The record was written by Māna (?), the son of the Bhōgika Nāgabhata.

(The inscription contains a date in line 28, which has not been noticed before. It is expressed in numerical symbols only, as the 10th (tithi) of the bright fortnight of Chaitra in the year 436 of an unspecified era. As Dharāśraya-Jayasimha, who made the present grant, was a son of Pulakeśin II who flourished in the first half of the seventh century A.C., this date must evidently be referred to the Kalachuri era. It corresponds, for the current Kalachuri year 436, to the 21st March 685 A.C., but as no week-day or nakshatra is mentioned with it, it does not admit of verification. But the statement in line 19 that the grant was made on the occasion of the vernal equinox which fell on the same date, i.e., on the 10th tithi of the bright fortnight of the month Chaitra, is important; for it gives us some details for verification. This tithi in the current Kalachuri year 436 ended 12 h. 45 m. after mean sunrise on the 21st March 685 A.C.3; but the Vishuva or Mēsha-san- krānti had occurred 5 h. 15 m. after mean sunrise on the previous day, i.e., the
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¹ The dynastic name occurs here as Chalikya. See also, above, No. 27.
² See below, p. 131, n. 1. 3 This is according to the epoch of 248-49 A.C., which suits other verifiable early dates of the era. In the expired year 436, the sankrānti occurred 11 h. 20 m. after mean sunrise on the 20th March 686 A.C., but the tenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Chaitra had ended ten days before, 16 h. 45 m. after mean sunrise on the 10th March 686 A. C.